Fake News Goes Both Ways

Fake News Goes Both Ways

Here’s something novel: Research!

We come in so many colors, political parties, faiths etc. and we want to believe that those we share views, are telling us the truth. Well, guess what? They’re not.

And it makes sense we have reached this point. Any of us who have taken debate classes know that the goal is persuasion but along with that, must come the truth. We have gotten cute over the years, on all sides, by omitting some facts or in many recent cases, a trend that has been highlighted, creating fake news.

Everyone does it. Republicans do it against Democrats, Democrats against Republicans. Religions have always been doing this. Shopkeepers would say: ‘hey...the butcher down the block sells horsemeat but mine is real beef.” Yeah, right!

I would get annoyed when my wife wouldn’t take what I was telling her as truth or at face value. I stopped objecting when I realized she merely wanted to find out for herself. And that’s where we must rise to the occasion.

I took a course in college called “Campaign Politics and Dirty Tricks.” In 1956, opponents of candidate Adlai Stevenson held up a large envelope and said : “HERE is ALL the truth on Adlai Stevenson who wants to be President!” The crowd got all riled up. Yeah! Yeah. Well, inside the envelope WAS the truth. His birth certificate, his HS record, a copy of a deed to his house etc. But it was the way it was spun. It was NOT fake news but it was nuanced.

Someone posted on FB this week, a story about a comment allegedly made by actress Whoopi Goldberg about a military widow at the President’s speech to Congress. The vitriol was amazing but no one, and I mean NO ONE on this thread bothered to see if it was fake news. It was.

I get into heated debates with friends over today’s political climate, even some here at City Brand Media. Sometimes I push the envelope but I do NOT post supposed news, I post opinions. And sometimes, not all times, there’s a place for that. Opinions that is.

H.L. Mencken once said ““No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Remember the Pet Rock and Chia Pets?

Or better yet, go on YouTube and find ‘The Twilight Zone” episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.” That will tell you what happens when people believe what they want to believe.

All I’m asking of everyone, regardless of where you stand; pick up a newspaper, read legitimate web sites, find out the facts. That kind of opinion is what earned me the Nobel Prize in Journalism! Or did it? Check it out yourself.

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